Tips to Surviving in a Roman Camp
by DivergentSlytherinDemigod
Summary: You've read about Alex's adventures. Now read about Robbie as he travels to Camp Jupiter to help Percy Jackson. With lies and secrets everywhere he turns, (not to mention Octavian who is a problem by himself) who knows if he'll survive? Sequel to "How a Fangirl Became a Demigod." You should probably read that first.
1. Chapter 1

**And this is the first chapter of** **Tips to Surviving in a Roman Camp** **. Hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer : I do not own anything to do with Percy Jackson or The Heroes of Olympus.**

 **Oh, and this book will be in Robbie's POV, although you probably knew that already.**

 **And I like updating once a week so I'll probably stick with that.**

Chapter 1 : I Try to be Inconspicuous. And Fail Miserably.

"Remember what I said. Learn from my mistakes. Don't say stuff that didn't happen yet. Stuff like that." Alex's green eyes looked worried as she scanned me over. "I'm worried about you Robbie. I mean, my quest was with Camp Half Blood, but this…"

"I'll be fine." I hoped my voice sounded confident, because truthfully? I wasn't ready at all.

Alex raised her eyebrows. "Don't lie. You're horrible at lying." Mentally cursing at my dad, I tried to reassure her that I _would_ be fine and that I _would_ survive but she was already waving me off. "You should probably go. Argus is waiting."

"What, no good-bye kiss?"

She laughed and gave me a peck on the cheek. "Be alive when I get to Camp Jupiter and we'll see."

As we both walked out of Cabin Seven, my heart grew heavier. Turning to Alex, I said, "What if I can't do it? Like if I can't find the camp?"

She smiled, but it wasn't her regular sarcastic confident smile that I was used to seeing. It was sadder and hopeful too, like she was depending on me. "You'll do it. You'll find him." Then brightening, she slapped the back of my head. "Don't think negative! Come on. You're going on vacation! Have some fun with your family! Tour San Francisco! Be a teenager!"

"We're not exactly normal teenagers though." I mumbled, rubbing my head. "And I have a chance of dying on this so called "vacation. And Alex, you're not supposed to be this cheery. You're supposed to be the sarcastic intimidating daughter of Poseidon who can kick ass. Now, you sound like one of those sparkly fairy princesses."

She slapped my head again. "Don't interrupt."

"And that's the Alex I know and love." Catching Argus's slightly annoyed gaze, I nudged her in the shoulder and pointed.

"Oh, okay. Right, you'd better go now."

Squaring my shoulders, I got into the car, hoping that for once, I wouldn't get attacked by monsters.

Aaaahhhh! Screams followed me as I cursed. "The Fates hate me, don't they?" I muttered under my breath. I took out my bow from my bag and fit an arrow, gtting ready to shoot.

Mom, running alongside me, asked, "What did you say dear?" Then pointing at my bow, she screamed. "Is that a bow?! And arrows?! What is this, Robbie?!"

"Nothing, nothing." I looked around. It all started out fine too. Nothing happened on the way to the airport. My mom tried to make small talk about my "school" (which I successfully deflected) and was pleasantly surprised to find out that I had a girlfriend. Of course, she had tried to give me The Talk but Dad managed to talk her out of it, something that I would owe him for the rest of my life for. The plane ride was great, nothing wrong, and I expected shit had to go down in San Francisco but nothing happened. We got out of the airport, dropped off our stuff at the hotel (except for my bow and arrows and my mom's camera of course), and started sight-seeing. And _then_ shit went down. Drakons slithered up to us and starting creating chaos with all the mortals screaming stuff about poisonous snakes, which wasn't that far off.

Running along, following the crowd, I suddenly saw the Caldecott Tunnel. _You have got to be kidding me! I don't even get to see Lupa?_ Seeing that the drakons were starting to catch up, I made a split-second decision and ran toward the tunnel. The drakons hissed with glee and followed me. Running with everything that I had, which was not a lot, I dashed toward the tunnel. Standing guard were two people that I didn't recognize and not for the first time since I left for California, I wished I had Alex with me. She knew everything and everyone from every book. Not me. I was more about focusing on the main characters. The girl, seeing the horde of drakons ran out to meet me.

"Get in the tunnel! You'll be safe there!"

I did as she said and passed the other guy who was running out to help the girl. When I looked back, I knew that unless I helped, there was no chance that the girl was going to get out of this alive. She was being surrounded by the drakon and the guy was too busy fighting the others to help. At the speed of light, I raised my bow and shot down the 5 drakons who were getting ready to spew poison.

She looked at me in astonishment. "Thanks!"

"No problem!" I ran out. "Let's go help your friend."

With all three of us working together, it didn't take long before all of the drakons became dust. Breathing hard, we stumbled through the tunnel into the camp. It was beautiful. Well, Camp Half Blood was a lot better, not going to lie, but Camp Jupiter had a sense of security that Camp Half Blood lacked. Maybe it was just the sunlight and smell of coffee but I automatically smiled.

Seeing my smile, the girl laughed. "Yep. This is Camp Jupiter. And I assume you're a new recruit?"

"Yeah. I'm Robbie Feldsman."

"I'm Gwen."

I couldn't stop myself. "Centurion Shish-Kebab!" And then I immediately clamped my mouth shut. _Now I know what Alex meant. Keep your mouth shut, you idiot!_

She looked at me like I was crazy. "What?"

"It's nothing, I thought you were someone else."

"Oh. Anyway, I'm a centurion for the Fifth Cohort." Pointing at the boy who was making his way into what I assumed was the bath house, she made a disgusted voice. "And that's Larry. He's kind of a jerk." Her face brightened up after a while. "Anyway, it's really nice to meet you. Thanks for saving my life back there. If it wasn't for you, I would have died."

I was about to say something like, "It was nothing." Instead, a commanding voice rose up. "Who is that, Gwen?"

Gwen's voice changed, from the optimistic person that I had met into someone sort of respectful and cautious. "This is Robbie Feldsman. He was being chased by a horde of drakons and he made his way to the tunnel."

Reyna made her way up to me. "You have a bow. How?"

"Well, I noticed that I was really good at archery. And I got this from a summer camp. They told me I could keep it." When Reyna's eyes moved to Gwen, I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding. I couldn't help it. She scared me. An aura of authority just radiated off her. Plus, her eyes were black. That was seriously intimidating.

Reyna continued. "Come with me to the principia. I want to ask you some questions. Gwen, wait outside and when I'm done, take him to Octavian." She swept off, her purple cloak fluttering. I started to follow her and then turned back to Gwen with a pleading look. She gave me an encouraging smile. Praying to all the gods of Olympus, I jogged up to Reyna.

Sitting down in the principia, I couldn't help but look around in awe. Mosaics were on the ceiling and the floor was pure marble. It was nothing like what I was used to in Camp Half Blood. There, everything was loose, there weren't many rules, and it was relaxing, like a regular summer camp. Here, every part of my body was telling me that this was wrong, that I wasn't supposed to be here. All I wanted to do was run.

Reyna put her hands on the table. "Tell me your story. And don't lie." Petting her two metal dogs, she said, "My dogs don't like liars."

 _Okay… Time to do some creative truth telling._ "My family and I went on vacation in California and while we were sight-seeing, suddenly these things came up. They spewed poison and everything. Gwen said they were called drakons?"

"Yes. Monsters. Go on."

"Well, I was running and then I saw this tunnel. I knew it was important and I knew I would be safe there."

Reyna looked confused. "You didn't see Lupa?"

"Umm no?"

Reyna still looked confused. Then she saw my arrows. "What metal is that?"

"I got these as a gift." _Implying you don't know. Good._

"Who gave them to you?"

"They were in front of me when I woke up."

That wasn't exactly a lie. I mean, it was my birthday a few months ago and Alex had sneaked a bunch of arrows next to my bed. Which I almost stepped on. Which made her crack up for ages. But I didn't exactly tell Reyna all that.

I asked, "Do you know what it is?"

"Celestial bronze. All Romans have weapons made of Imperial gold but this? This is older, rarer. Something _Greeks_ would use." She shook her head. "It's obvious that your godly parent gave this to you for help. If anything, I would say that your godly parent is Apollo but that remains to be seen. You're interesting Robbie Feldsman. Go with Gwen to Octavian. Let's see if you can join the legion."

Walking to Temple Hill, I was a bit apprehensive. I wasn't that keen on meeting Octavian, a guy who I didn't even know how I was related to. Plus, he was power hungry, manipulative, and an absolute disgrace to the name of Apollo. I really wasn't sure how I would be able to control myself from punching him in the face.

Gwen saw my face and misunderstood. "Nervous?"

"A bit."

"Don't worry. You'll get into the legion. And if it comes down to it, I'll stand for you myself. You did save my life." She patted me on the back. "Plus, if you ask me, Octavian's an absolute asshole." We reached the temple of Zeus. Jupiter. Whatever.

Octavian was busy summoning freak red lightning. When we came in, he turned around. Smiling, he stepped toward us. "So, you must be the son of Apollo."

"What?"

"Well, I read it in the auguries. _The son of Apollo has arrived to save us all_ or something like that. So Reyna sent you to me, hmm?"

"Yeah. Just get on with whatever you need to do." This guy was already rubbing me the wrong way. He looked at me like I was dirt. All I wanted to do was go up to him and say, "I'm the son of Apollo and you're just a lousy legacy!" Although that would probably get me killed, it would be totally worth it. Unfortunately, he went up to the altar and got ready to murder stuffed animals so I couldn't exactly do it. But one could dream…

He raised his knife and slashed open a teddy bear. Looking through the stuffing, he smiled. "You may join the legion!"

"Great." I turned to leave. When I noticed Gwen wasn't following me, I stopped. "Gwen…"

I heard yelling. "You think that I'm going to ever support the likes of you?!" Gwen stomped her foot. She started yelling again, this time in Latin, so I didn't understand much although I did take Latin in school. We didn't exactly learn insults but I heard "son of a …" and something about snakes. Also body parts. I really did not want to know what she was saying.

Octavian just smiled. "You really don't want to say that."

"Oh I don't, do I? You with your bought friends and bought influence!"

 _Okay, this is going too far._ I steered Gwen out of the temple as she was screaming about knives and certain death. Even Gwen's yells weren't loud enough to keep me from hearing Octavian say, "You'll pay for that."

Evening came and Reyna introduced me to the camp. "This is Robbie Feldsman, a son of Apollo. Octavian says that the auguries are favorable."

Octavian continued. "He is qualified to serve!"

Everybody shouted, "Ave!"

I was embarrassed. Not being used to people staring at me, this was torture. Octavian turned to me. "Do you have any letters of reference? Credentials?"

"No?" I choked out.

"How unfortunate." He smirked, making me want to pummel him even more. "Does anyone stand for him?"

Gwen stepped up. "I do. He saved my life."

Reyna spoke. "Does your cohort accept him?" At Gwen's glare, everybody started banging their shields on the ground. She looked at me. "Very well. Welcome to Camp Jupiter."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer : I do not own Heroes of Olympus or Percy Jackson.**

Chapter 2 : I Meet Nico and Percy.

Asking around for the date, I found out it was June 18. Which meant that, if my calculations were correct, Percy was coming tomorrow. _Great._ I just had to survive one day on my own. And so far, it was not going that great. I met Frank and Hazel and I could tell they thought I was another Octavian. They acted a bit wary around me. The rest of the cohort pretty much ignored me. Gwen was the only person that was actually nice to me, trying to get me out of the worst jobs in camp, etc. Except today apparently, her influence wasn't enough. She came up to me with a sorry expression on her face.

"What is it?" I thought someone had died or something.

"You're assigned to taking care of Hannibal."

I frowned. "The elephant?"

"Yeah. Plus, you're stuck with Frank Zhang. I know he hates you."

"Oh, okay." She still looked like she failed me or something. "Hey, it's okay. I'm on probatio. It's only because of you that I didn't get any of the bad jobs until now. I'll be fine. It's just an elephant."

And here I was now, shoveling manure. It would have been better if there was any conversation, but Frank wasn't talking to me, other than the "You're working with me today?"

I cleared my throat. "Why aren't you talking to me?" _Wow, that's the best I could come up with?_ I knew Alex would be shaking her head, rolling her eyes, and whispering, "Pathetic."

Frank didn't answer.

"Well, if it's because you think I'm the second coming of Octavian, then please. I'm not. Honestly, I think he's an asshole with an ego that seriously needs to be cut down to size."

That did it. "I know right? I mean, he blackmails everyone, threatens them with the whole 'I'm Apollo's legacy' thing and then he tells stupid stuff about the future and he says things like how Apollo will raise him to greatness." He finished his rant. "I hate him."

"Well, he's only a legacy. I'm Apollo's son. And sometimes I think he needs a reminder."

Frank laughed. "I'm sorry for ignoring you earlier today. You're not that bad. Anybody who hates Octavian is a friend of mine."

I would have answered but suddenly a scratchy voice was at my ear. "You're not even getting any work done! Back in my day, the Romans were powerful, fierce. And now they let the probation do everything. Inconceivable!"

Frank sighed. "We'll get the work done before evening muster, Vitellius."

The ghost sniffed. "I hope so."

After he left, Frank and I started working again, this time talking and laughing.

At evening muster, I stood with the Fifth and did everything I was supposed to. Getting there on time, responding to roll call, was adequately embarrassed at our missing eagle, stuff like that. But my stomach was in knots. Tomorrow, Percy and Nico were coming. I hoped Percy wouldn't recognize me. That would make things awkward. There was also the fact that I had no idea how much to tell Nico. Dinner went by in a blur. All I remembered was sitting with Hazel and Frank and talking about ways to kill Octavian and get away with it. I was not looking forward to tomorrow. Unfortunately for me, tomorrow came a bit too fast.

I woke up the next day bright and early. After sorting out the weapons, it was time for lunch. Getting a brownie and some coffee from the bakery, I went and talked to Gwen. "So, do you know what I'm doing today?"

Gwen looked up, distracted. "No, why? Do you want a job in particular?"

"Can I be guard duty today? You know, protecting the tunnel."

Gwen smiled. "I'll try my best. I feel like Frank and Hazel are already on guard duty, but you can join them."

"Thanks Gwen. You're the best!" I ran over to the tunnel. "Hey, Frank! Hazel!"

They both turned around. "Hey, Robbie! What are you doing here?" Hazel asked, her gold eyes shining.

"Gwen told me to join you. Anything so far?"

"Nope. Everything's pretty quiet so far."

Then I saw a small figure with an orange t-shirt. _Percy._ Snake haired ladies were following him. I tapped Frank on the shoulder. "Hey, that guy. We should help him."

Frank's eyes followed my finger. He squared his shoulders. "Hazel. I'm going to try to shoot those monsters out of the air. You stay here, guide the new recruit."

By this time, Percy was carrying Juno, although she didn't look so godlike now, with her raggedy dress and swollen feet. I wasn't as extreme of a fan as Alex was, memorizing the book and all that, but I knew that Frank would need help. I ran up to him, raising my bow. "You do know those are gorgons right?"

He yelped. "Gorgons?!"

Percy was stumbling, still holding on to the goddess. I heard Juno say, "Onward, Percy Jackson!"

Hazel looked confused. "You're definitely a demigod. But who are…" She trailed off. "You know, never mind. Robbie, you escort him back to Camp Jupiter."

"What about you?" I asked.

"I'll hold them off."

"Hazel," Frank whined. "Are you sure?"

"Just go!" She shooed us away.

I opened the door to the tunnel and both of us started running, Frank right at our heels. "Come on, Percy. We have to get to Camp Jupiter. We'll be safe there." I yelled over my shoulder. We reached the end of the tunnel just in time. As we neared the river, the tunnel shook and rumbled. Dust rained down. Percy looked backward. His voice was worried. "Is Hazel okay? Shouldn't we check on her?"

"She'll be fine." I panted. "I think. Destroying tunnels is her specialty."

"How'd you know that?" Frank gasped. "I've never told you that."

"She's Pluto's daughter. I thought it would be obvious."

"Right. Sorry, I'm just really paranoid sometimes."

Hazel ran through, covered with dust. "I held them back, but I won't be long. The door's not going to hold them."

"We have to get across the river." I said. "It's the only way, isn't it."

"Yeah." Frank pushed Hazel toward the river. "Go. Escort Percy. It's my turn to kill the monsters."

Percy was about to follow Hazel and wade across the river, but I could see him hesitating. I ran to him. "Come on, Percy! I don't know what you're scared about, but if you don't cross the river, you'll die!" _And if you die, your sister will kill me._

He strode through the river and I was about to sigh in relief when I heard Frank. "Ahhh!" The gorgons had grabbed him and were flying up in the air.

I could see Percy's mind working a mile a minute. He raised his arms and the water followed his movements. The gorgons disintegrated in the Little Tiber and Frank was saved. I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding. I had grown fond of Frank after our little heart to heart with the elephant and even though I knew Percy would have saved him, I couldn't help but worry.

Juno transformed from the beggar homeless looking lady into her goddess form or whatever. With a goat skin cloak over her shoulders and a lotus flower topped staff, she radiated power, even more than Hera. But then, I didn't see her in the fight against Porphyrion. Following the lead of everyone, I kneeled. Juno went on to warn the camp of a danger on the Feast of Fortuna, introducing Percy while she was at it. With a dramatic, "Do not fail me," she disappeared.

Reyna's face looked as if Percy was her worst nightmare, which was probably true, given that Percy did something on Circe's island, I didn't remember what. What I did remember was that Reyna and her sister were involved. But when she spoke, her voice was steady. "Hazel, take Percy to the principia. I need to talk to him."

I walked with Percy and Hazel to the prinicipia. We walked in silence, but every so often, I could see Percy staring at me. Getting annoyed, I asked, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

He frowned, eyebrows knitting together like he was concentrating. "I don't remember anything specific about myself, just bits and pieces. But… do I know you?"

"Ummm…"

He continued. "Did I ever do anything to hurt you?"

 _Well there was the time you nearly drowned me for kissing your sister._ I shook my head no.

"I keep on feeling like I should know you, but I don't." He shook his head. "I'm sorry. Probably just something wrong with my head right now."

We reached the principia. Hazel looked at me curiously. "Hey, Robbie. Why don't you find my brother? I think he's here somewhere. Check Pluto's temple."

"Yeah." I started to walk away. "Tell me how the auguries go!" I yelled back.

"Will do!" She answered.

I walked slowly to the temple, trying to procrastinate as much as possible. I did not want to meet Nico. I didn't want to explain anything. That guy scared me. Even when I had only read about him, he gave me nightmares. Maybe it was because Apollo and Hades were complete opposites, but for whatever reason, I always hated meeting him. He gave me the chills.

When I saw Nico standing in front of the black crypt, I cleared my throat. "Hey."

Nico turned around. His eyes widened. "Robbie?" His voice sounded incredulous and a little bit angry. "What in the name of Hades are you doing here?!"

"I was on vacation in California?"

He bristled. "And?"

"And monsters attacked. So I started running and well… I found this place. What are you doing here?"

"I… I…" He sounded flustered. "Listen. You can't tell anyone that you saw me here. Got that?"

His dark eyes looked straight into mine, staring deep into my soul.

Okay, maybe I was being too dramatic.

"Well, that's going to be a little hard to keep a secret, seeing as Percy's in camp too."

"What?" He started muttering. "Why now?" Then he stopped. "Wait. Why'd you even find me in the first place?"

"Oh. Hazel wants to meet up with you after Reyna's finished with Percy in the prinicipia."

Nico looked stricken.

I sighed. "You know you're going to have to meet up with Percy sometime. I'm just giving you a heads up so when you see him you don't drop your sword or something like that."

He relaxed a fraction. "Thanks Robbie. I owe you one."

"Your welcome. Now I'd better get back to the principia. I want to talk to Percy."

He called out at my retreating back. "Just, if he doesn't remember stuff, don't tell him!"

I turned back. "You think I'm stupid? I won't do that…"

And I headed toward the principia, ready to talk to Percy again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer : I do not own Percy Jackson. That's RR.**

Chapter 3 : I Annoy Mars (Not The Smartest Thing To Do…)

Hazel had already left the principia when I walked up. Knowing that they would probably be at the augury, I started running. Panting and out of breath, I burst into the temple of Jupiter just in time to hear, "… be such a shame if those rumors about you actually turned out to be true…"

Hazel tensed and Percy looked about to charge the guy. I beat him to it. Storming up to him, I hissed. "Listen up, you wannabe hero. You are a legacy of _Apollo_. The god of truth! So quit your stupid blackmailing. Just do what you always do and murder more teddy bears."

Octavian's face had gotten red. "I am the augur!"

My face turned dismissive. "So?"

"I can have you kicked out of camp. You have no idea how much power I have."

I smiled. "Yeah? Well you have no idea how many people I know who can kick. Your. Ass."

He didn't look worried. "You had no letters of recommendation, nothing. You know no one, Feldsman and I would quite pretending if I were you."

"You're right." He smiled, thinking that he had won. "I don't need those people. I can kick your ass myself." With that, I punched him in the face.

Turning back to Hazel and Percy, the former looking like she was about to faint any second and the latter looking at me with respect, I smiled. "Come on guys."

Once we were out of the cabin, Hazel exploded. "What were you thinking?You could have broken his nose!"

I frowned. "Are you actually defending the guy, Hazel?"

"No, but…"

Percy cut in. "That was awesome! You totally showed him."

Hazel looked horrified. "If Octavian tells, you really could be kicked out of camp! You punched the augur in the face! Plus, you're still on probatio!"

" _If_ he tells," I said.

"And what makes you think he won't?" Hazel asked, fanning her face.

"Because he's a power hungry snake."

"And that'll help you because?" Her voice trailed off.

"Because power hungry snakes cannot be humiliated. And, 'I, the all-powerful augur who wants to be praetor, got punched in the face by the newbie who just came to camp a day ago' is very humiliating."

"Still…" Hazel looked worried.

"It'll be fine. Most likely, he'll try to get me back during the war games."

"That's your idea of fine? Robbie…" She sighed. "You know what? I won't even try. Come on Percy. Let's go meet my brother."

"What, I wasn't invited?" I followed along.

"No," was my short response.

"Because I punched Octavian? Come on Hazel, he deserved it. He was blackmailing you!"

Percy nodded along. "Yeah, I mean, if he didn't do it, I would have."

She muttered, "You both are idiots." Thabkfully, she didn't say anything as I fell in step next to them.

Percy sounded curious. "So who's her brother?"

"A guy named Nico di Angelo."

"Anything else you'd like to tell me?"

"Well, he's kind of creepy. He's got the whole death vibe going on. Other than that, I don't know that much about him. He scares me."

Hazel turned around. "Nico is not scary."

I raised my eyebrows. "Really? How about those times when he just appears right behind you like a shadow?"

Hazel threw up her arms. "Ugh! You know what, just go and help Frank or something like that."

"So, you're kicking me out."

"Yes, I'm kicking you out!"

I raised my hands in surrender. "Fine, fine."

Instead of going to help Frank, I wandered around camp until after what seemed like forever, I heard the horns signaling evening muster.

Running to the barracks, I was one of the first ones there. I stood, waiting for Dakota to start roll call. As he neared the end, I could see Hazel running toward us. As Dakota called out her name, she squeaked, "Present!"

Then I saw Percy standing with Nico off to the side. When Reyna finally introduced him and Hazel stood for him, I sighed in relief. You never knew when things could go wrong.

As we ate dinner, Hazel and Frank were explaining to Percy about the eagle. Percy slurped his soda. "So you're saying that everyone thinks we're cursed."

"That's right. I mean our reputation got better when Jason was praetor, but…" Frank shrugged his shoulders.

"He disappeared." Percy finished for him.

"Yeah. I heard he was a really good leader though." Hazel added.

Alex had told me about Jason. According to her, he was annoying, uptight, and a bit too suspicious. Plus, he apparently underestimated her. Although she had grudgingly admitted that he was an okay leader.

Percy looked thoughtful. "I have a feeling that this isn't the first time I've been an underdog. It'll be fine. Maybe we can turn things around."

The horns blew once again, signaling the beginning of the war games. Everyone cheered. Well, everyone except for the Fifth Cohort. We just looked glum. Some people cheered, but only half-heartedly. Everybody hurried to get their equipment. Percy looked at the glum faces with confusion. "Wait, we're the attacking team. That's a good thing right?"

"Well, we get the elephant." Hazel started.

"But we always lose," Percy guessed.

I clapped him on the back. "Quite right, good sir. In haiku format…" I cleared my throat.

"We lose every time.

No matter if we try hard.

So there is no point."

I made a horrified face. "Gods, I'm turning into my dad."

Percy chuckled. "It's a good haiku though."

"Better than what my dad can think up of, yeah."

Hazel laughed. "Apollo is the god of poetry, Robbie. He's probably amazing at poems."

"You'd be surprised."

Frank cleared his throat. "We'd better get going, guys. War games, remember?"

"Right."

All four of us started running toward the Field of Mars. When I saw what we were supposed to attack, I stopped short. "We're attacking that?!"

Hazel sighed. "They did a good job today. That's bad."

Percy's eyes widened. "They built this today?"

Hazel smiled. "We're trained to build. We can break down the camp ad build it somewhere else if we need to. Might take a bit longer but we could still do it."

"Let's hope we never need to do that."

Hazel pointed. "The banners are in there. We have to try and get them."

"So, like capture the flag." Percy tilted his head. "I think I like capture the flag."

I grinned. _Oh you have no idea_.

"So real weapons are allowed?" Percy looked down at Riptide.

"Yeah." Hazel answered.

"Won't people get hurt?"

"There's medics," I said. "They have ambrosia and nectar and unicorn stuff. So people don't die."

"Well, some people still do die. Just, not a lot."

"Thanks, Hazel, for making us all feel a whole lot better." I grumbled.

"So what do we do?" Percy asked.

"We're the Fifth Cohort. We always get the worst duties. We go first and get slaughtered. I mean, it's not even really war games anymore, it's 'Beat Up the Fifth Day.'" Frank looked mad.

"Well, I mean this isn't capture the flag." I added. "In capture the flag, the whole team works together. But here, the cohort who gets the banners gets all the glory. So you'd be surprised to find out who'll stab you in the back."

Frank and Hazel looked at me in shock. "How do you…?"

"Gwen explained everything." _Not really._

Then we heard Dakota's voice. "They're throwing us at the walls to soften up the defenses."

Everyone groaned.

"Maybe we'll win this time!" Gwen was always cheery and optimistic.

She assigned everyone duties. What ours was. "Just, do whatever. Show Robbie and Percy the ropes. Try to keep them alive."

Percy looked at us, "Try to keep them alive?"

"Yeah, I mean we're not going to make it. Either we're burning or we're drowning or…" He stopped. "Drowning. The cannons. You can make them explode or can do stuff with the tunnels and we can get you close and…"

Hazel punched him. "You said you wouldn't tell!"

Frank mumbled an apology and Hazel looked down. "Whatever, it's fine."

Going through the tunnels was stressful, at least for me. We could hear the cannons and the elephant and explosions, probably from the scorpions. When we finally emerged, we saw what Frank predicted. The Fifth Cohort was being beat up and the Third and Fourth Cohort weren't doing anything to stop it.

Frank took out an arrow. "Percy. Now would be a good time."

Percy concentrated.

The guards were swiveling the cannon toward us.

"Now?" I asked.

BOOM.

The cannons exploded, sending everyone flying.

Frank hurried and climbed up the wall. I followed. The First and Second Cohort got destroyed. I guess it was because they never really knew what it was like to be on the losing side, but the pride of the camp were seriously being slaughtered.

Percy was fighting like a demon and Frank was just a big ball of metal armor. I was just picking off the defenders one by one with my bow. It was complete chaos. And I liked it. Percy, Frank, and I went inside the fortress and it didn't take us long to disarm the guards, take the banners, and ride out in glory. Everything was going perfectly.

Until I saw Gwen.

The medics had put her on a stretcher. Her face was grey and there was a pilum stuck out of her armor.

"No, no, no…" I rushed over to her.

The medics were trying everything, but I could tell it was too late. They looked up at Reyna and shook their heads. I walked back to Frank and Hazel, my head down. Then I had a suspicion.

I looked over at Octavian. He looked interested and I could see a glimmer of a smirk. I remembered what he said when Gwen took me to the augury _. "You'll pay for that."_

Shaking with anger, I took an arrow, loaded it and fired.

"Ow!"

It was my turn to smirk as Octavian looked down at an arrow stuck in his arm. Although, when he searched for the culprit, I made sure to wipe my face clean.

Frank whispered in my ear, "Good job."

Then Gwen gasped. Her eyes snapped open. The medics looked shocked. Gwen looked around. "What's everyone looking at?"

Frank went up to her. "Just, close your eyes for a second, okay?"

"All right?" She did as he asked.

Frank pulled out the pilum as Percy and Hazel held her down. The blood stopped and the wound started healing.

Gwen looked confused. "I feel fine."

Everyone looked around, not knowing what was going on.

A voice sounded. _This is only the beginning._ There was an explosion at the middle of the legion and a soldier stepped out. I knew he was Mars and I felt driven to kneel but I stopped myself. _The only reason Percy got on this quest was because Mars wanted him to learn respect. I have to annoy Mars._ With that thought, I continued standing along with Percy.

At the same time, we said, "Ares."

There were gasps all around us and Hazel hissed at me. "Robbie! What are you doing? Are you _trying_ to get yourself killed?!"

"You've got spunk. Yes, my Greek form is Ares. But to the children of Rome, I'm known as Mars, patron of the empire."

"So you're a jerk in both of your aspects then." Mars looked at me, his goggles flaring. I swallowed, almost backing down.

Percy squinted. "We met… we had a fight…."

"If you had fought me, you'd be dead," Mars said studying Percy.

"You're arrogant too." I forced out. Gasps all around again. Mars glared at me, the corners of his mouth turning down. Suddenly a ball of fire landed a foot from me and Mars raised his hand, like he was about to strike me down. Finally, after a long time, he lowered his hand and settled for glaring at me.

"You're trying my patience, young demigods. Now, kneel."

I had no intention of being barbeque so I did what he asked. Percy did too, although he didn't look happy about it. Mars explained about Thanatos and the land beyond the gods. All while Percy inserted his own snarky comments, of course.

Then Mars called Frank up. Let's just say, that has to be the most embarrassing claiming I have ever seen or read about. Except for maybe my own. Because seriously, who makes a horrible haiku while quoting the Bible while having a huge dramatic light on the person? Apparently Apollo. Unfortunately, my thoughts were cut short when I saw Mars point at both me and Percy.

"Normally, there should only be three people on a quest. But these two need to be on it. They need to learn respect for Mars. And I feel like you can have another companion of your choice." Lightning flickered in the sky. "I must go. Romans, do not disappoint me!"

And he erupted into flames.

Seriously, Greek or Roman, these gods have to have their dramatic exits.

And with that exciting confrontation, I went off to bed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Right. So, I've been seriously busy, writing a math paper and homework and concerts..,. Also I'm not the best at managing my time, as you've probably noticed. That said, I AM SO SORRY! Really, really, really sorry.**

Chapter 4 : Busted

Percy shook me awake, with a weird look in his eyes. "You lied."

Still half asleep, I yawned, "What?"

"I had these dreams full of these people who I can't remember. One of them asked about you." He scrunched up his eyebrows. "She looked a bit like me."

 _Oh shit. Alex, why?_

I tried to look confused. "I don't know what you're talking about. I swear, this is the first time I saw you."

He shook his head, not convinced. "No, I felt like I knew you when I first saw you. There's something wrong with this and I'm going to find out what." He stood up and exited, joining the others who were hurrying for the senate meeting.

I put my head in my hands. "Well, at least Alex is doing fine." I muttered.

 _ **Alex's POV**_

I was _not_ doing fine. First, we finally got contact with Percy and he didn't even recognize me, which to be fair, I was expecting, but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt. Then, Annabeth, overjoyed, hurried over to Sally to tell her the good news. Then, she came back and hauled me into the Big House.

And that brought me here, sitting uncomfortably across from Annabeth who was glaring a hole in my head.

I got up. "Look, if you have nothing to say, I'll just…" I scooted towards the door.

She growled. "Sit."

I sat.

Something very wrong was going on here.

Annabeth leaned forward. "You said that there were no other books. You said that you didn't know what was happening to Percy. You said that we just had to wait and see!" Her voice had been rising so by the end, she was shouting. "So what's this?" Rummaging around in her backpack, she took out a Barnes & Noble bag.

 _Oh no._

Taking the book out, she yelled. "I can't believe you didn't tell me!" She read off the cover. "The Son of Neptune. I was just in such a good mood and I saw a bookstore so I went in to buy my first book in a while and I see this! I had to buy it." She winded down, her face red.

I said cautiously. "So, did you read it?"

That was the wrong thing to say.

"Of course I read it!"

"So, you know that Percy and you get reunited at the end. Happy ending right?"

She looked at me, shocked. "He drinks gorgon's blood!"

"But he survives! Annabeth, why are you so mad over one book? I just didn't want you to change fate or something."

"It's not just one book!" She screamed, crying. She reached in the bag again and tossed The Mark of Athena at me.

 _Oh shit._

My reaction to Percabeth being pulled into Tartarus was bad enough. Annabeth's reaction was mine x 1000.

"I get pulled into Tartarus…" I tried to comfort her but she flinched. "Get away from me!"

I stood my ground. "Come on Annabeth, everything's going to be fine." Terrible thing to say when she just learned she was going to hell, but I wasn't that great at comforting people.

"You know what's happening to him right now. You know what's going to happen. I know what's going to happen and it's tearing me up inside. How come you don't feel anything?! Aren't you the least bit worried? He's your brother!"

"Yeah. That's exactly the reason why I'm not worried. Because I know him. And I know that he's going to make it. And I trust him to come back."

She gulped. "And Tartarus?"

"You'll survive."

"You suck, you know that? What about Bob and Damasen?" Don't you think about them? They died!"

I snapped. "You think I don't know that?! I'm worried too, you know. Things were the same for me in my quest and I could just follow the book, but how do I know that it's going to be the same for his? And Robbie's in that quest too…" I trailed off. "But I know that he'll be fine. If anything else, I believe that he'll be fine. So stop moping around and don't even think about changing the future."

 _Well that was a terrible way to handle the problem._

 _ **Robbie's POV**_

I followed Frank to breakfast and we joked around with Hazel and Percy. Well, Percy was still giving me the silent treatment and instead stared at me all the time. I cleared my throat. "Hey, Percy."

He stood up. "I'm getting another glass of orange juice."

Frank looked at me curiously. "What's going on between you two? It's like post rejection awkwardness."

I choked. "Not! Seriously, Frank, where do you get these ideas? He just thinks I'm hiding something."

Vitellius appeared behind me. "And if you were hiding something from the glorious Roman Empire, that is treason!" He stabbed me in the back a few times.

"Ouch." I said in the most deadpan voice I could possibly make. Frank snickered but Vitellius looked smug.

"Indeed. Hurry to the senate meeting." He sighed. "Rome used to be so great…" He went off, shaking his head and sighing.

Hazel pulled us along. "Come on, guys!"

As we neared the Senate House, I heard an annoying voice. "Ahem. Who are you?"

"Umm, I'm Robbie. Robbie Feldsman. Son of Apollo?"

"Ah yes, of course. Go on in."

I sighed with relief.

"No weapons though, young man! Rules are rules."

I grudgingly handed my bow and arrows to Julia, who smiled at me, then I went inside. It was the opposite of Camp Half Blood. If I was there, there would have been fights and yelling, but here, it was all order.

It was stifling.

Reyna took the stage. "Citizens of Rome. We are not here to debate the quest, however we are here to question Frank Zhang's choice in companions."

Octavian spoke up. "Excellent idea Reyna. I believe that Robbie Feldsman is not qualified for this quest. If I may make a suggestion…"

"He was ordered to go on this quest by Mars Ultor himself, along with Percy Jackson. He is part of this quest, no exceptions." Gwen fired back.

Reyna nodded her head. "That's true. Robbie must go on this quest."

Octavian opened his mouth to argue, but Reyna beat him to the spot. "No exceptions."

He closed his mouth and glared at me. I shot back a smug smile. We were in the middle of a staring contest when Octavian suddenly stood up.

"Our praetor is right. She is only following the rules set forth by our gracious protector, Mars Ultor. Frank Zhang must lead this quest and Robbie and Percy must accompany him. It is what our praetor has commanded and I wish them luck on this treacherous journey."

He sat down and smiled at me. Frank stepped forward and suddenly as Octavian did whatever it was that he did, a tattoo appeared on his arm. Seriously, I really wanted to know how that happened. Was there a god of tattoo burning or what?

Octavian asked Frank a question and as he was a bit preoccupied, I stood up. "Alaska. Duh."

"Yes, well how will you get there? And how do you plan on surviving long enough to free Thanatos?"

Good questions to which my answer was, "We'll improvise. Do it as we get there."

Octavian raised his eyebrows to the audience. "Yes, well you need some sort of plan."

Percy stood up. "We'll take a boat."

Octavian started laughing as did the rest of the Senate. "The son of Neptune asks for a boat! We Romans don't exactly like boats, but he's not much of a Roman, isn't he?"

The crowd responded with howls of laughter.

Which quickly stopped as Reyna's voice carried across the hall. "Enough. You will have access to the whole of Rome's navy. That should be enough."

Percy looked at me. "The whole navy, did you hear that?"

"The whole navy is one ship Percy" I sighed.

Percy looked down for a bit but then he perked up. "It's still a shi… Wait. I'm supposed to be mad at you." And he turned right around and crossed his arms.

The Senate was put to the vote and thankfully it passed. I sighed in relief. If things changed, I didn't know what to do.

As we left the Senate, Octavian caught up to us. "Hey, Jackson."

Percy turned around with a glare. "What?"

"So I'm your enemy now? Not the best choice. I'm loyal and a good soldier and…"

I interrupted. "And for a descendant of Apollo, you're pretty good at lying."

"Oh wow Feldsman. I didn't know you hated me that much." He clucked his tongue. "And all I was doing was sending you a message. Jackson. You can go meet Reyna with Feldsman over there. It'll be a nice private meeting. Without those two"

Percy hurried to the principia while Frank and Hazel after giving me a curious glance and walked away. As I followed Percy, Octavian called my name. "There's something weird about you, you know. Something not right. I can sense it. Oh, and Feldsman? It's not lying, it's more bending the truth."

 _Seriously? Everybody thinks I'm weird nowadays. I didn't even do anything!_

"Great."

 _My gods, that was a terrible comeback_.

With that, I ran to catch up to Percy at the principia.

When I got there I saw Percy sitting in one of the praetor chairs, studiously not making eye contact. "Hey, Percy. I get that you don't trust me right now but come on."

Silence.

I gave up and sat down.

Reyna stormed in, her cloak flying. Her eyes flashed as she grumbled, "Idiot. Stupid. Why did I even…"

Percy looked confused. "Am I not supposed to sit on this chair or something?"

"Percy. I don't think she's in the mood." I turned to Reyna. "Why'd you call us here?"

She looked at me. "I needed to talk to Percy about the camp but first, I need to ask you a few questions."

 _This is not my day, is it…_

Percy perked up, probably wanting answers to whatever suspicions he had about me.

Reyna continued. "Octavian keeps on bugging me to interrogate you so this is just a formality. Did you know Percy from before he came to camp?"

My mind raced. "I met him a few times."

Percy leaped up. "Ha! I knew it!" At Reyna's glare, he shut up and sat down.

"Is that all?"

Damn, a yes or no question. I glanced at the dogs and flinched as they snarled at me. "Uh, no?"

"What else, Robbie?" Reyna looked stern.

"I might be dating his sister?" My voice trailed off as I saw Percy's face turn white then red.

"I have a sister?" Percy sounded wistful. Then he got mad. "And you're dating her? And you didn't even tell me I had a sister! What the hell, Robbie?"

"Maybe it's because I knew you'd react like this," I muttered. Percy got up, breathing heavily.

"Stop!" Reyna banged her hand on the table. "Robbie, what's going on?"

"I uhh…" _Out with it, I guess._ "I'm Greek?"

The reaction was immediate. A sword lay less than an inch away from my neck. Reyna hissed. "What?"

"Greek. Uhh, you know…"

"I know. What does that have to do with knowing Percy?"

"Yeah." Percy butt in. "What does that have to do with me?"

"He's Greek too…"

"And…"

"Camp and stuff."

Reyna's eyes widened. "There's a camp for you Greeks?"

I shrugged. "It's not like we're here to destroy you or something."

"Oh really. Two Greeks come into this camp at the exact same time and you're trying to…"

"Okay I know it looks bad but really I didn't come here to…"

Reyna lowered her sword. "Spill."

"Huh?"

"Tell me everything. Where you come from, what you're doing here, everything."

Percy shuffled his feet around. "Well, I'll have nothing to add, amnesia and all. But I want to hear this story."

 _Oh Alex, please don't kill me._

With that, I proceeded to tell them everything, knowing what was going to happen in the future and all. When I finished, Reyna and Percy looked at me like I was crazy.

"You expect me to believe that." Reyna drummed her fingers on the table.

"Yes?"

"Then tell me something that hasn't happened yet, or something that would prove that you know things."

I thought hard. "Your sister is Hylla and she's the queen of the Amazons. Before that, you worked for…" I paused. _Who did she work for again?_

Reyna leaned forward. "Yes?"

"Umm, Circe! You worked for Circe and then Percy and Annabeth came and released pirates." I finished with relief. I really needed to brush up on the books.

Reyna looked surprised. She started pacing around and finally stopped. "I'll keep your little secret Robbie. But Octavian's not going to stop digging. And I'll be keeping an eye on you." She turned to Percy. "Can we talk now? Privately?" She sent me a look and I got the hint.

Walking out the door, my whole body relaxed. And immediately tensed back up again when I wondered what Alex would think.

 _We got busted._

 **Christmas update!**

 **I am really sorry though.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer : I do not own Percy Jackson. Unfortunately.**

Chapter 5 : Percy Tries to Change Fate

I walked to my cohort, trying to ignore the looks coming my way, ranging from sympathetic (Gwen) to downright evil (Octavian). Falling onto my unmade bed, I sighed. _Of course I had to mess everything up._ Now Percy would probably be annoying me for information on his life and Hera… I shuddered at the thought. I was dead. I pretty much ruined the Queen Goddess' plan. I wouldn't be surprised if by tomorrow cows would follow me around. (Although we were traveling by water so that was a relief) Rolling around, I noticed someone staring at me.

"Ahhh!" I scooted back frantically before noticing that it was Hazel.

She leaned back frowning. "Do I look that hideous?"

"No, no it's just… I'm just really out of it right now." I sat up. "Are you going to pack?"

"No, I'll do that after lunch." She sat down next to me. "I'm nervous too, I mean this is something different that we're going up against." She stopped and gave me a curious look. "By the way, what did Reyna want?"

"Interrogations, warnings, being on Octavian's bad side, no biggie." My voice sounded a bit shaky.

Hazel laughed. "A normal day then?"

"Pretty much."

Frank came into the barracks and relaxed when he saw Hazel. "I was looking for you! Come on, let's go to lunch."

Hazel joined him and looked back at me. "You're not coming?"

"Nah, I'm good. Not that hungry. I'll just be in here packing."

They left, chatting and laughing and I turned back to my bed, searching for useful things to bring on this quest. I racked my brain. _What's supposed to happen?_ The only thing I remembered was gorgon's blood and Phineas and beef jerky, which wasn't that helpful. Also, we would have to meet Frank's grandma, something I was not looking forward to. With my luck, she would probably look at me once and throw me out of the house.

I buried my face in my pillow. _This was hopeless._ After staying like that for a few minutes, I finally got up and threw some random things in my backpack. The only thing I made sure to pack was my bow and quiver, which I filled with arrows. After that, I lay down and waited for the rest of the group to show up.

Percy stomped in, looking down. "Hey Robbie. Reyna noticed you were missing. She gave us a good luck speech and Octavian gave a pretty crappy prediction and all that good stuff." He took a pair of jeans and tossed it into his backpack. "All in all, you didn't miss anything."

He held his tattered orange t-shirt delicately, looking wistfully at it. Then he shoved it in my face. "So this is Camp Half Blood's shirt?"

"Yes…" I didn't know where he was going with this.

"You have one too?"

"Yeah."

"And you know what's going to happen in the future." It wasn't a question.

I nodded. I could already tell where this was going.

"So you know what's going to happen on this quest."

"I'm not going to tell you anything, if that's what you're getting at."

Percy pouted. "Why not? We can finish the quest faster, help Camp Jupiter faster, and basically do everything faster! What's wrong with that?"

"By changing one thing, you could change the whole quest and everything would change and we would fail the quest. I don't think you want that."

"At least tell me one thing." He pleaded. "Come on, one important thing."

I racked my brain. "Um, over the river and through the woods, Canadians, um, starch."

Percy looked thoroughly confused. "What?"

I dashed out of the barracks yelling, "It's important!"

Frank and Hazel were waiting outside. "Finally! What took you so long?" Frank hefted his pack.

"Talking about the quest." I moved far away from Percy who had just come out. "SO what do we do?"

I heard Percy mutter, "Like you need to ask" and I gave him a look to which he responded with the most frightening glare I had ever seen, and I had been on the receiving end of Nico DiAngelo's glares many times. I lowered my head to the ground.

Frank led us to Terminus, who checked our IDs and gave us directions and then we were off.

Going to the docks was easy, although I was still pretty anxious, gripping my backpack tightly every time I heard a sound. As the shadows grew longer, we finally made it to the docks and Percy eagerly scanned the row of ships. "Which one do you think is ours?"

Frank pointed. "That one?"

Percy's eyes followed his finger and immediately his face drooped. I couldn't blame him. The tarp looked pretty small and when we saw the boat I was not impressed. I wasn't sure if that "boat" could take us all the way to Alaska with its dingy surface and old crusted appearance. When I went in, the boat was no better with trash everywhere. There wasn't much stuff, just some benches and a cooler. The only thing it did have a lot of was water, wetting my shoes and totally not making me feel any better about this quest.

Hazel looked disgusted. "This is a mistake. This can't be…"

Percy concentrated and the water left the ship and went straight into the sea, of course not without splashing me a little bit too. I did not know Percy Jackson would be this petty. He started cleaning the ship with his mind, which I thought was pretty uncool. I mean come on, it wasn't even water he was manipulating, it was steel! I got that it was technically part of the ship and whatever but not cool. When the boat was clean, Percy turned to Hazel and Frank. "Hop in."

They did, looking admiringly at him. Well Frank looked admiringly at him. Hazel just looked sick. Percy looked angry all of a sudden. "Get off my ship."

Frank's eyes drew together. "What?"

Percy's eyes cleared up. "Nothing. Come on, let's go." And when he closed his eyes, the boat started moving north and we finally started our quest.

Hazel looked green but she still noticed Nereus yelling at Percy. "Who's that?"

"I don't know. I've been here before though." His mouth turned down in frustration. "I don't know."

We sat in silence for a few minutes, then Frank looked at Hazel and immediately gre concerned. "Are you OK?"

"I get seasick. I didn't know it would be this bad. Wow." She swayed on the bench.

Frank immediately started blurting out random things about ginger and I bit back a laugh. I couldn't believe they weren't together yet. It was pretty obvious, and I'm one of the most clueless people when it comes to love. Percy pointed at Mount Tam. "That's familiar. What happened there?"

"Big battle. It was the old Titan base." Frank answered.

Hazel continued. "Jason told me about it. Apparently he singlehandedly fought Krios himself and when the Romans destroyed the palace, Kronos's essence went along with it."

"That's…not right." Percy started pacing. "I don't think…"

And then Hazel collapsed.

Frank started shaking her, his voice growing more and more panicked. "Come on Hazel, wake up!" He looked up at us. "She's not waking up! We have to help her!"

Percy looked lost. "Hey, ask the Apollo kid."

Frank turned to me.

I had no idea how to heal someone. I got the archery genes, not the healing ones. But I knew what was wrong with her and I couldn't let Frank down. I knelt down beside her and made a big show of feeling her pulse and other slightly medical stuff. "She's fine. Nothing's wrong with her. I think it's the stress. Just let her rest."

Frank let out a big sigh of relief. "Thanks Robbie."

"No problem."

He continued. "You know, I really wanted to be a son of Apollo, with the archery and all." He looked forlorn.

"Hey, Mars is good too. I mean everybody respects you and all that."

Percy nodded along with me. "Yeah. Mars is one of the best parents you can have in Camp Jupiter. You got the avenger on your side."

We all started laughing at that. All the stress just got to us and we couldn't stop. Finally, Frank took a deep breath. "Where are we?"

Percy consulted his inner compass. "150 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Why?"

I stood up. That number seemed familiar… Frank nodded. "We should probably stop. Wait for Hazel to wake up."

"Yeah." Percy led the boat to a beach cliff. "You want to bring her out Frank?"

"Yeah I should probably do that."

Percy and I went off the ship and we stood, waiting for Frank to come out. I stepped back toward the ship. "I should help him."

Percy's voice stopped me. "You don't know anything about healing someone, don't you."

"No?"

"Then, why would you… Oh because you _know_."

"Percy…"

"I asked for important information and you give me a Thanksgiving song!"

"Also Canadians and starch." I added.

"Give me something else."

"All right. Chinese Canadian baby man and forklifts. Oh! And fuzzy bunny slippers with cheese. Actually no cheese. Some people don't like cheese." I smiled. This was getting fun.

Percy looked like he was about to break my nose. Fortunately, Frank came out of the boat and gently laid down Hazel. He looked at us and felt the tension from Percy. "Robbie, what did you do?"

"I gave him what he asked me for. It's not my fault if he doesn't understand it."

"That was not what I asked you for! I asked you for information!"

"And I gave you information."

"Fine. Something that's going to happen right now."

I thought hard. Oh yeah! "Hazel wakes up.'"

Percy face turned red. He raised his fist and I instinctively ducked when Hazel's groggy voice filled my ears. "Too much testosterone here guys. I'm drowning in it."

Percy looked at Hazel. "Do you need anything?"

"Does anyone have something to drink?" Her voice was hoarse.

Percy cursed under his breath. "I left the supplies in the ship. I'll go get them." He turned to the boat. "Frank, keep her safe. I don't trust this place."

Frank straightened his shoulders. "I'll do that."

Percy ran down. Frank looked down and quickly let go of Hazel's hand. "I want you to know… I…" Then he looked back at me. "Do you mind Robbie? This is kind of a personal conversation."

"Yeah, I'll just go with Percy then." I walked slowly so I could still hear them talking and Hazel choking up when Frank told her that he understood. It was sweet. I aslo heard Frank's tense voice.

"The wind's stopped."

I turned around and saw Hazel nod. Then I stained my ears to hear Frank say, "Then why is the grass still moving?"

Then I ran to Hazel, finally remembering why 150 miles seemed so important. _Stupid evil Cupid babies._ I was too late. I saw Hazel's shocked face as either Wheat or Sorghum dragged her into the field.


	6. Chapter 6

**Yeah, I have no words right now for how long I've gone without updating. I had a lot of stuff on my mind, but that's no excuse. My big apology is coming… After the chapter though. This is really LONG overdue.**

 **Disclaimer : I own Percy Jackson. Wait, no I don't.**

Chapter 6 : Rick's Wrong For Once. I Mess Things Up. Alex Gets Mad At Me. All In All, A Normal Day In A Quest.

Percy was furious. I had no idea why, really. It wasn't my fault Frank wanted to have a private talk but apparently, since I was the all knowing Robbie, I was supposed to have prevented this.

Percy made this very clear to me. With considerably more cursing.

"Damn you Robbie! I go to the ship for a few minutes and everything goes to shit. Care to explain why?" His hands ran through his hair in frustration.

He seemed to get frustrated with me a lot lately.

Frank tried to stand up for me. "It's my fault Percy. I wanted him to go away."

Percy turned to him and with a calmer voice, he said, "Robbie should have _known better_ then to leave you alone." He glared at me.

"Percy," I managed through gritted teeth. "A word?"

"What?" We were a few feet away from Frank and he respectfully gave us some privacy.

"You can't expect me to remember everything from the damn book! I don't remember all of the details and if you want me to do that well then sorry, but I'm useless!" I all but exploded. "And I know you're mad at me. Gods, I'm mad at myself too but right now we work together to get Hazel back!"

Percy still looked mad but he grudgingly said, "You have a point."

Five minutes later, we were combing through the fields, looking for any trace of Hazel, when Percy stopped us. "What is that?" He pointed to a small pile dead ahead of us. "I heard someone."

"A big pile of schist. And That was probably Hazel." I answered.

"What?" Frank looked confused.

"Nothing." Percy looked at me and I could tell he was thinking, _See that wasn't too hard, was it?_ "Come on guys, let's go."

We made it to the big stone. And I promptly stopped in surprise, causing Frank to bump into me. When I thought karpoi, I thought of the book's description, evil Cupids, green eyes, etc. What I got was totally different. I mean, they had no wings. They weren't really solid. The way they moved was disconcerting, to say the least. As they walked, pieces of grain flew up, making it hard to see, and it was like they were made of grain. Like Sandman actually. Maybe Sandman was based off of Greek Mythology? Like my dad went into the creator's head and said, "Hey. Make a guy that's like an evil grain dude in your comics." I'd have to look into that.

My thoughts were abruptly cut off when Percy elbowed me. "Hey! What are you doing? We have to go."

"Right, right." I winced. I guess sharp elbows ran in the family.

We sneaked up onto what seemd to be Wheat. I wasn't really sure. And Percy wasn't either. "Ok, I'll get Grain Guy #1, you get Grain Guy #2, and Frank, get Grain Guy #3. After that, just kill whatever."

"Great plan, Percy. As always, I bow before your wisdom." I shook my head.

Percy ignored me. "All right. In 3… 2… 1… Now!"

He stabbed the one in front of us, while Frank and I shot arrows at everything we could see. The grain started to get back togethert, but Percy got a lighter out of his pack and lit it. "I'll burn this whole thing down if I have to." Frank winced. I raised my bow and shouted. "He'll do it! He's a certified psychopath!" Everything scattered.

Hazel grinned. "My knights in shining armor."

"More like sweaty t-shirts, but whatever floats your boat." Frank began to climb the schist. "Plus, you're not a damsel in distress. You were doing just fine."

"Oh, it was just the schist." Hazel moved over to make room for Frank. "The karpoi don't like it."

"Still…" His voice trailed off. "Robbie? Percy? You have to see this."

We quickly climbed the rock and looked over the edge. "Schist." Percy breathed.

The army was bigger than I thought it would be. It seemed like it would never end. I saw centaurs and Cyclopes and I was hit with the wrongness of it all. But whatever that feeling was to me, it was worse for Percy. He held his head, muttering about how centaurs were the good guys. Frank looked at me and mouthed, "Is he okay?"

I shrugged and focused my attention on the army. Then, the giant appeared. Alex had told me about Enceladus, but now I could tell why he was the small one among his brothers. I felt like throwing up.

Hazel spoke, her voice hushed. "That's not Alcyoneus. Maybe Polybotes?"

The army moved forward. Then, there was a blinding light, a rainbow. I shielded my eyes. The monsters shrieked in outrage. They charged, only to be brought back when blisters appeared on their body. "Horrible goddess!" The female Cyclops said, probably Ma Gasket. The army wasn't that smart, because their next step was to throw weapons into the rainbow, burning them up. Polybotes roared, "Stop, you buffoons!" I thought I heard Ma Gasket complain about snacks. He bashed a few heads and I saw Frank wince. He stepped in front and spread his arms. "Surrender and I will kill you quickly!"

The goddess wasn't too impressed as a Ding Dong hurtled to his head. Polybotes caught it and growled. "You dare insult me? You…" He trailed off. "I smell the sea god."

Ma Gasket snorted. "You don't let me have snacks, so you don't get any sea god. Plus the sea's right there." She pointed.

Polybotes rounded on her. "Am I the commander or not? It doesn't hurt to check it out." He stalked toward us.

My mind went blank. I was pretty sure this wasn't supposed to happen. No, this definitely wasn't supposed to happen. "Uh, guys?" I jumped off the rock. "He's coming this way. Any plans?"

Percy wasn't much help, shaking and muttering. Frank followed me down the rock along with Hazel. "How about we make a run for it?"

I gave him a look. Frank turned defensive. "It's all we've got. You can go and get Percy inside that building with Hazel and I'll cover you."

Hazel protested. "Frank, I'll be fighting with you. You need all the help you can get. We'll be out in the open and everything."

I glanced back and Polybotes was nearly at our hiding spot. "Guys, hate to rush you, but…"

Hazel got into a fighting position while I put Percy's arm around my neck. "Go!"

I took off running as fast as I could, which wasn't that fast, with me supporting Percy and all. Polybotes made a grunt of surprise. "Son of the sea god! And friends!" I looked behind me as he gestured toward us. "Destroy them!"

The army roared in pleasure and charged. Hazel blocked some arrows and Frank took out a few monsters of his own. We were nearly at the rainbow. I prayed to Iris. _Don't burn us. Let us pass through. Please_. I opened my eyes as we passed through, me dragging Percy along. Throwing open the door, I burst through, making a hiker girl with white hair shriek in surprise. "What happened to you?" My mind whirled, trying to figure out her name. Sheepy? Wooly? It was something to do with sheep, that was for sure.

I held up a hand, too out of breath to speak. "Later." A voice drifted through the shop. "Fleecy, let me see the customers."

Oh, her name was Fleecy. Hazel gawked. "Your name is Fleecy"

She smiled. "Well, no. It's actually _" The only way to describe that was gibberish. "But Fleecy's good too. Come on. My boss wants to meet you."

She led us to Iris, who at first glance seemed liked the definition of a hippie. Then, I remembered she was a goddess. She looked at us. "Hello, I'm Iris."

Hazel gawked again. "The rainbow goddess?"

Her face soured. "Well, yes, but I don't like to be defined by my job. I prefer head of ROFL, a place for healthy and alternative lifestyles." She gestured behind her. "This took a lot of work."

"You thorw Ding Dongs." Frank phrased that like a question.

Iris looked horrified. "Of course not. These are gluten free, no sugar added, vitamin enriched, soy free, goat milk and seaweed based cupcake simulations." Looking at our disgusted faces, she added, "They're very tasty"

Hazel sounded hesitant. "I'm sure they are. But, we need help. There was the army of monsters heading to Camp Jupiter. Can't you stop them?"

Iris shook her head. "Sorry dear. I practice strict nonviolence. No more of the typical Olympic aggression. I prefer Buddhism. Or Taoism."

"But you're Greek." Hazel said bluntly.

"That changes nothing, little demigod."

"Right." I cut in. "Percy's a bit sick right now so let's discuss the benefits of a nonviolent set of beliefs later. Do you know if…"

Percy looked straight at Iris. "I need to send an Iris message. Can you help me?"

Silence.

Percy shook. "Isn't that something you do?"

Iris looked at him closer. "Interesting." And then, to my horror, her eyes landed on me. "You're in Camp Jupiter and yet…" She gave out a short laugh. "Well, how about both of you go and try to send an Iris message. I daresay you know how to send one, yes?" She looked at me, her brows raised.

I managed a nod.

"Good. Fleecy, go with Hazel to pick out some supplies for their little quest. Frank, come with me. We need to have a little chat."

She led Frank away as he asked, "Wait. What's an Iris message?"

I took Percy to the office. Looking for a fountain, I finally found one at the back. Thankfully, it still worked and I could see a rainbow through the mist. Taking a golden drachma out of my pack, I threw it in, saying "Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me Alex at Camp Half Blood." The mist shimmered to show her reading a book in her cabin. I cleared my throat. "Alex."

She flinched and looked at me. And then she jumped up. "Robbie! What are you… Is that… Why exactly…." She put down her book. "What in the name of Tartarus are you doing? Why is Percy with you?"

"Things kind of got messed up."

She sighed. "Tell me about it. Annabeth knows. She got pretty much the whole series and now she's really pissed at me."

Percy cocked his head. "You… look familiar."

She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "I should hope so." Her attention went back to me. "Please tell me you didn't royally mess up."

"Would you be mad at me if I said yes?"

"What happened?"

"He knows I know about the future. He knows I'm Greek. He knows he's Greek. He knows I'm dating you." I rattled off in one big breath.

"Wow. You really did screw up. But then, so did I." She lay down again. "So, why'd you call?"

"Things aren't going the way they should be. They're deviating, little by little, and well you're the person who knows the books inside out. So, I was hoping…"

Percy looked between me and Alex like he was watching a tennis match. Then a lightbulb went off in his head. "You're my sister. You… Annabeth. She's my… my girlfriend. I…"

Alex sounded like she was going to cry. "I've been looking for you a long time, even though I knew it was hopeless, that I wouldn't find you until later. Now that I've found you, I want to tell you everything, but I can't, okay Perce? I just can't."

He looked bewildered. "I… I need to go and ask Fleecy for some tea. My head hurts." He all but bolted from the room.

Alex put her head in her hands. I tried to have a comforting voice. "Lex, maybe…"

Her voice was a forced calm, which was scarier than if she yelled at me. "I told you to look after him. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Everything was supposed to go by the book and everything would be fine. And I'm really pissed at you and I know I shouldn't be, but I am, and it's like I've lost control of all rational thought. So tell me Robbie, what were you thinking?" She looked up at me, her eyes red.

"I know." There was nothing else for me to say. "Look, I know you feel stressed out right now, but we'll figure it out. You said it yourself remember? Go with the flow."

"Yeah well the flow is taking us places that I never wanted to be."

I opened my mouth to say more but the Iris message beeped. "Please insert another drachma for an additional 5 minutes or hang up."

Alex raised her hand to slash through the image. "It's fine Robbie. Sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you. I'll see you later." And she was gone.

I walked out of the office, only to be tackled by Percy. "We need to go help Frank."

"What?"

"He's fighting these basilisk things. Thank god he has his bow." Then taking a look outside the window, he winced. "Maybe not. Come on! We'll talk about my sister later. Believe me, I have a lot of questions."

I followed him out the door.

 **I'm sorry. There's really nothing else I can say. Things just got so busy that I couldn't deal with everything at once. Now that things have settled down, I guess I'll be able to update. But really. I am so sorry.**


	7. Chapter 7

**I had a killer fever last week so double update this week!**

 **Disclaimer : Rick Riordan owns Percy Jackson. Not me.**

Chapter 7 : Dreaming About Dad

And then I immediately went back inside. "Fleecy!"

She turned to me. "What is it?"

"Pass me one of those hippie satchels, would you?"

Her eyebrows drew together. "They're not hippie satchels, they're more like masculine accessory bags." She took one off the rack and filled it with essentials. Well, not really essentials. More like food that I wasn't going to eat in a million years but only took to be polite. And so that I could tease Percy. Stuff like that. "I took the liberty of putting in some other supplies that I forgot to give Hazel."

I nodded and quickly snatched the bag. "Thanks!" I ran out the door again, only to find everybody else staring at me.

"Robbie," Hazel said in a weird voice. "Why do you have a rainbow bag?"

I held it out in front of Percy. "For you. Don't throw it out, we'll need it."

He looked at it with disgust. "I am not taking _that_. It's an insult to my masculinity. You were the one who brought it out, you can keep it. Plus, Apollo not really a masculine god right? With all the singing and the poetry…"

"And the archery. As in, my dad will shoot anyone who insults him. I mean he shot this queen's sons just because the queen insulted his mom."

Percy gulped.

"I get the point. Apollo is very masculine." A light appeared in his eyes. "Plus he has a _sister,_ doesn't he. All protective of him and all."

I sighed and hefted the bag. _Really Percy?_ "Yeah. So you're not taking the bag?"

He gave me a look.

"Got that."

Frank jumped in. "So guys, we need to go to Portland. Let's get going.

The wind felt good on my face as we sped through the water. If I closed my eyes, I could remember going to the beach with Alex everyday during the summer, just splashing around having fun. Unfortunately, Hazel's voice brought me back to reality. "So Robbie? Percy? How was the 'Iris message?'"

"It was fine." Percy didn't say anything else, instead stalking to the edge of the boat and looking at the fish. Hazel looked at me.

"I have nothing to add."

Frank jumped in with his story about Phineas. After he finished, I settled in for a long overdue nap

"Kid!"

I yawned.

"Hey, Robbie!"

Opening my eyes, I mumbled, "Percy, shut…" Then my eyes widened. "You are not Percy." I quickly scanned my surroundings. "I am _not_ on the ship."

"Maybe I should write another poem. An Ode to Sleepy Sons. That's a good title." The blond teenager… Apollo looked at me.

"Dad?"

He opened his mouth. "Yes, I am your dad. That was five syllables right?" He started counting on his fingers.

"Don't!" I interrupted him. "Don't say another haiku. And please, can you not look like you're the same age as me? It's disconcerting. And aren't you not supposed to talk to mortals?"

He looked offended. "First off, my haikus are wonderful. Second, I happen to think I am the most handsome god ever. Do you really think I would say that if I looked like I was forty? Third, technically, I'm not supposed to talk to you, but we need to have a father to son talk right now."

"Okay?"

His face broke into a smile. "Don't worry, it'll be short. Now, Rob, why are you consorting with Romans? Actually don't answer that, I know the answer. But really. And you knowing the future. That's a big no-no. I mean, I'm proud of you. You're like my favorite kid after Shakespeare!" He broke off and took a deep breath.

"Uhh, thanks. I guess." To say that I was confused was putting it lightly.

"Also, I just want to say I approve of you punching Octavian. I can't believe that that's my child. Not _mine,_ but you know. And…"

"Dad? What did you want to talk about? Like serious things."

His face changed. Instead of a happy go lucky teenager, he now looked actually like a millennia old god. His eyes were serious. "Phineas. He's not going to like you. At all. With the whole telling the future thing between the two of you…"

"It's not telling the future."

"You're saying stuff that didn't happen yet. If that's not telling the future, I don't know what is. Anyway, Percy Jackson is a mess now isn't he? It's sad, really." He whistled a little tune. "Some words of advice. When he asks you about Alex, tell the truth. Tell the whole story. You suck at lying so that's your best bet."

"That's because of you though."

"True. Another thing."

The dream flickered. When it came into focus again, Apollo looked frantic. His words got quicker.

"Damn. Father's caught on to me. Listen Robbie. You're different. Alex is the more typical type of demigod. All good at fighting, able to just immerse herself into this messed up world. She's going to be straight in the action of this whole mess that's going on. You. You'll stay in the sidelines. You need to…"

The dream flickered again. This time, it didn't stop and as I started to wake up, I heard a booming voice yell, "Apollo!" A whine answered him. "Aw dad…"

"Robbie! Hey, wake up!"

Blurry visions swam across my eyes as I stretched. "Give me 5 more minutes."

SPLASH!

My eyes snapped open. "Gods! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Well we were trying to wake you up for a long time. This was the last resort." Percy shrugged, not looking that sorry. "And I thought I slept heavily."

"Yeah, whatever. So are we in Portland?"

"Yep. I already told Hazel and Frank about my dreams. They really didn't narrow anything down. The whole glacier thing… Not so helpful. Plus Robbie. I used the beef jerky in your purse to convince some whales to drag us to Portland. Well, I didn't _use_ it but you know…"

"Hopefully, Phineas can help us." Hazel smiled, trying not to look worried. "Also, Robbie, did you have some dreams? You were mumbling in your sleep. Something about haikus."

"Yeah, I… It's nothing useful. Just talked with my dad."

"And this caused you to talk about haikus?" Hazel frowned. "And the gods don't contact their children often. Most times, they help when you're in need, but they don't really talk to you."

"Maybe Apollo thought I was in really big trouble? I don't really know, but nothing really happened in that conversation."

"Riighht. "Percy dragged out the word and gave me a suspicious look. "Well come on. Phineas awaits." He started walking off the boat.

I wrung out my shirt and followed him. I could still hear Hazel and Frank talking about us though.

Hazel : "Don't you think something weird's going on with the both of them? I mean it's like they're keeping something from us."

Frank : "We can trust Robbie. And Percy doesn't seem like the type of person to keep something harmful from us. We're friends, Hazel."

Hazel : "All the same, though. I just feel something off with them."

I walked faster and their conversation turned faint in my ears. Looking around, I immediately felt uncomfortable. It was so gray and empty. I mean, it was raining but it was so still. Frank caught up to me with Hazel right after him.

"Do you see anything? Hear anything?"

As if in answer, a yell came up. "GOT YOU NOW, YOU BLASTED CHICKENS!"

I pointed at the general direction of the voice. "Well, there's your answer. Come on!"

We ran toward the sound and I sorely regretted not changing my shirt. The rain slid down my neck, making my already cold and wet shirt more cold and wet. I wouldn't be surprised if I got sick after this. Then we hit the parking lot.

"Oh, I am starving." Frank groaned as he took a deep breath. My stomach growled too as I looked at all of the food trucks.

Then we went to the back.

"And I have lost my appetite." Frank looked disgusted as he stared at the flies circling the overflowing garbage cans.

The sound of a weed whacker brought our attention to a man in a bathrobe yelling and swing said weed whacker around randomly.

Hazel's voice was apprehensive. "That does not look like an all knowing seer who can tell us everything we need to know."

"Looks can be deceiving?" Percy didn't sound so sure. As he watched Ella get hit by the weed whacker, he winced. "Hey stop it!"

The harpies fled and Phineas turned toward us. He smiled, showcasing his teeth which were a nightmare. Yellow, decaying, some of them slightly chipped. I was scarred for life. Seriously, compared to Alex, I think I got the short end of the stick when it came to quests. He shuffled, his bunny slippers dirty. "Thank you for getting those harpies out of the way!"

"Uh yeah." Percy shook his head. "Anyway, I'm Percy Jackson. This is…"

"A son of Neptune eh? Well then, that would make us brothers! I'm a son of Neptune too."

"That's… great." Percy didn't sound impressed.

"Oh let me guess. You!" He took hold of Hazel's hand. "Hazel Levesque, Daughter of Pluto." Looking at the general direction of Frank, he sniffed the air. "And you're Frank Zhang, son of Mars. There's something else…"

"Greek blood, Argo, yeah, it's nothing special."

"Nonsense! Your family is definitely special. So many great things destined for you. Just a tidbit of information. Your great grandfather? He didn't really destroy the camp."

Frank gaped.

"And you." He swiveled towards me. "You're Robert Feldsman, son of Apollo."

Now it was Percy who gaped. "Your name is Robert?"

"Yeah." I mumbled. "Nobody knows it though. And you'll call me Robbie. Unless you want to be hit by an arrow. I don't like the name Robert."

Phineas looked amused. "Quite a big group."

Percy held up a hand, then put it back down when he realized Phineas couldn't see. "Wait a minute. Aren't you cursed? Like the harpies steal your food and…"

Frank tapped me on the shoulder. "What wrong with Robert? I mean it's a good name."

"I just don't like it," I whispered back.

Phineas laughed. "That's ancient history! Now things have changed. Sure that was the way it used to be. Jupiter thought I told too much. But really. What's the point of having the gift of prophecy if you can't use it? Like you, Hazel Levesque, are supposed to be dead." He turned to Frank. "And you need a stick to survive. And you, Percy Jackson, don't even know who you are!" He looked at me and gritted his teeth. "And you, son of Apollo, can tell the future. You know everything that will happen, don't you. Even those pesky little details. Fascinating. That's something even I can't do."

Hazel gripped her sword. "We get it. Jupiter cursed you blah blah blah. What happened next?"

"Oh well, when my patron brought me back…"

"Your patron?" Frank asked.

"Gaea." Phineas rolled his eyes. "Isn't that obvious? Your little friend here, her patron is Gaea too."

Hazel drew her sword. "That is not true! She's not my patron!"

Phineas grinned. "Whatever you say. Anyway, Gaea cursed them. They can only eat from my table! I can eat all I want and now they're the ones who have to starve! Isn't that wonderful?" He revved up the weed whacker.

"You're a monster!" Hazel said.

"No more than you sweetheart. If it wasn't for you, Alcyoneus wouldn't be alive!"

Hazel's eyes widened and she took a step back. Frank put an arm over her shoulder. "Hazel? What is it?"

"You'll find out later. But you're not just here to talk to me aren't you. You want information. You want to know where Alcyoneus's lair is. I could tell you. But there has to be a price."

"Not happening." Hazel glared.

"Are you sure? You need me in order to succeed in your quest. I wouldn't brush away my offer so quickly." His voice was taunting and I had an urge to shoot two arrows into his blind eyes. _Why did I leave my bow in the boat?_

Phineas continued. "There's a harpy that's faster than the others. She's smart, that one. I want that harpy brought to me. I would probably tie her up. That would be torture for her. Yes, that's a good idea. Capture that harpy and I'll give you the information that you need."

Percy shook his head at us, but Phineas smiled. "Remember what I told you. Without my help, the quest will fail and everything you love will be destroyed!"

After we got some random food from the trucks, we walked away, Percy shaking in rage. "I don't care what happens. We're not giving him that harpy."

Hazel nodded her head, then looked at me. "Phineas said you know the future. Tell us. What should we do? What'll happen?"


	8. Chapter 8

**As promised, the double update. Hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer : I do not own Percy Jackson.**

Chapter 8 : Everybody Hates Me Except For the Harpy.

 _Previously…_

" _Hazel nodded her head, then looked at me. "Phineas said you know the future. Tell us. What should we do? What'll happen?"_

My face became blank. "I… can't say."

"Why not? If you have information that can help us, then we can use it, can't we? We need all the help we can get and you're part of our quest. It's not like you purposely want to ruin it so at least give us some information." Frank finished.

 _Gods, they're as bad as Percy!_

Keeping my voice calm, I tried to placate them. "Guys, there might be stuff that I know, but it's not information that I can share. I mean, I just can't."

"Why not?" Hazel shot back at me.

"Because telling people about the future usually results in people trying to avoid it or change it, and that can cause worse things to happen. Haven't you seen the movies?"

"Yeah, but this isn't the movies, _Robert_. This is real life, and…" Frank stopped as realization hit him. "If you know the future, then you knew that Hazel was going to get taken by those things."

"I didn't know that specifically but..."

Frank cut me off. "You knew something bad was going to happen." His face turned red. "Yet you didn't say one word. You didn't help us in any way." His voice trembled with rage. "You didn't even have to say 'Oh, Hazel's going to be attacked by wheat things.' You could have just warned us to be on our guard."

Hazel joined in. "Why didn't you?"

"Because my predicting the future thing is unpredictable, OK? It's not even what you think it is, it just…" I trailed off.

"Just what?"

"Guys." Percy pointed at the sky. "That's our harpy."

I sent a grateful look his way but he ignored me. Frank sniffed. "You'll give us answers when we're done with all of this, right?"

"Yeah." I was resigned. Apollo did warn me to tell the truth. I just wished it came up later. A lot later.

We followed the harpy to the elephant and Frank had calmed down enough to make some remarks about how it was Chinese. He was still ignoring me though. Percy fanned the smell of the noodles up into the air and the harpy circled us, looking down. "Hey." He continued fanning the noodles. "Can you come down? Don't worry, we won't hurt you. We just want to talk."

Ella landed on the Chinese elephant and sniffed. "Cheese." She twitched. "Ella doesn't like cheese."

Percy stopped fanning. "You're Ella?"

"Aella. Ella. Harpy. Ella doesn't like cheese." She mussed her hair.

"Break the cinnamon burrito in half and give her some." I said.

Frank didn't react, but Percy did what I asked. He gave the pieces of the burrito to me and muttered, "You seem to know what you're doing."

I held the burrito up. "Look Ella. I know you like cinna…" She swooped down and took the piece, then quickly landed on the elephant. As she started to nibble on it, other harpies came and took the burrito while she tried to cover herself. It was all over in a flurry of feathers. Soon, Ella sat crying. I held out the other half of the burrito. "Here. Eat it quick before the other harpies notice."

She again grabbed it, but this time she made it through the burrito without getting mauled by the harpies. Shuddering, Ella cawed. "Cinnamon. Good for harpies. Tasty."

"Yeah," Percy said in a gentle voice. "We want to be friends Ella. I'll get you more food and…"

"Friends." Ella looked all over before settling on the sky. "10 seasons. A half blood of the eldest gods, shall reach sixteen against all odds." Looking toward Percy, she shivered. "You're sixteen. Page sixteen. _Mastering the Art of French Cooking_."

Percy's eyes grew unfocused. "What did you just say?"

Hazel's eyes narrowed. "It sounds like something Phineas would say."

Ella squawked and flew off. Hazel stomped her food. "Gods, I'm so sorry. It's all my fault. Now we have no idea…"

"Look." We all looked toward a building, some bookstore if I remembered correctly. "Multnomah County Library." Frank read.

Okay, maybe not a bookstore. But I was close.

"Maybe we should go there?" I asked cautiously.

"Don't you already know?" Frank snapped.

Hazel patted him on the back and whispered in his ear. I sighed. "I'm sorry about not telling you about something bad happening to Hazel even though I knew something was wrong. I know I got her into danger and if I had just told you, nothing would have happened."

Frank looked a little bit appeased. "I'm sorry for snapping at you. But I'm still mad, you know."

"I wouldn't expect anything less."

Percy stepped between us. "Listen guys, I know you have issues to work out but for right now, can we go into that library?"

We all ran into the lobby. Percy immediately got a dreamy look on his face which was replaced by confusion and anger. He slammed a bookshelf so hard, the librarians looked at us and frowned. Then looking at Hazel's sword, they frowned some more. Getting up from her desk, one of the librarians, an old lady, headed toward us.

"Maybe we should hurry up and go to the roof? Librarian alert." I said just loud enough for my friends to hear.

"Got it." At Hazel's questioning glance, he smiled. "Just dizzy for a bit. I'm fine. Robbie's right. We have to go to the roof." When we found a stairway with access, we quickly slipped through it, avoiding the woman who was now looking for the "girl with the lacrosse stick and her loud friends."

Ella was in the midst of a cardboard shelter filled with books, fluffing her wings and muttering. Percy moved slowly as to not alarm her. We heard her say random paragraphs from random books and Percy's eyebrows raised. "Ella." He picked up a book. Tell me the last sentence on page 45 of Tuesdays with Morrie."

Ella immediately said, "Tuesday would be fine."

"That's… Wow."

Frank nodded in approval. "You are a genius chicken."

Percy started talking to Ella, but she was silent. Turning to me, he said, "Do you want to try?"

"What makes you think she'll answer to me?"

"Just try. I think she likes you."

I kneeled in front of Ella. "So we want to break the curse. Any ideas?"

"Impossible."

"No it's not. We just need help. Do you have anything that can help us beat Phineas?"

She shuddered. "Phineas is bad. He hurts."

"Yeah, I know. We can heal that gash though. Frank hand me some nectar." When he did, I scooted closer, waiting for her to shriek. When she didn't I poured some on her back and watched the gash close. "Isn't that better?" She nodded. I continued. "So, any weaknesses?"

"He sees big stuff. Not small things. Luck. Chance."

Percy paced. "How is that going to help us?"

"We do some kind of game that has high chances. I would suggest the gorgon's blood."

Frank looked at me. "How did you know about the gorgon's blood?"

"Because of this, right?" Hazel held up a book that looked very familiar. "The Son of Neptune." She opened the book and started reading the book flap. "Percy is confused. When he awoke from his long sleep…" Scanning the rest of the flap, she stopped. "Robbie, when you said you knew the future, that's because you read this book."

"We have more important stuff to worry about right now." Percy looked surprised, like he didn't even know why he was defending me. "But don't worry. Rob will tell us _everything_ we want to know once we get back to the ship."

Hazel stared, but thankfully put the book down. "How are you so sure you're going to pick the right vial?"

"I have a plan. Let's go guys. We don't have that much time." Ella flapped her wings and landed on my shoulder. As we leapt out of the stairwell and into the lobby, we almost ran into the librarian. "Excuse me! Running is not allowed in the library. Miss, lacrosse sticks and other sports equipment are strictly prohibited and my goodness! Birds are certainly NOT allowed. I'll have to ask you to leave the premises."

"Yes ma'am, sorry ma'am." We all but ran through the doors and started to the parking lot.

Percy laughed. "It's not like we brought guns." He made his voice into a high falsetto. "I'm afraid lacrosse sticks are strictly prohibited."

We all burst out laughing except for Hazel who elbowed him, although she was smiling. "Are we just going to ignore the fact that there is a book about us and our quest?"

"Yes. Because we have something to do right now." Frank answered. "Believe me, I'm beyond pissed at Robbie for not telling us this but…" He trailed off. "You know."

As we went nearer to the lot, we slowed down. My head hurt suddenly and I shivered. "Don't tell me I'm becoming sick!"

"You're sick?" Frank moved away from me.

"I don't know. I just…" I sneezed. "Okay, maybe I'm sick."

"Shut up." Percy looked tense and his hands were white as he squeezed the vials so hard I thought they were going to break.

We reached Phineas and Ella started shaking on my shoulder. I tried to calm her down, but she nervously fluttered her wings. Phineas turned towards the sound. "Well, you've brought me my harpy. Go on then, give her over." He held out his hands. When nothing happened, he lowered them. "What then, have you come to kill me? Don't you demigods ever listen? You need me."

"We came to make a deal." Percy held out the vials of gorgon's blood and explained his "plan." I knew it would work but I still thought it would be risky.

Phineas's fingers twitched. "Sight. One of those vials could give me sight." He grinned. "I accept, but with one condition on my own."

"And what's that?"

"He drinks with me." And I found myself staring at Phineas's finger.

"Uhh," I stalled. _Damn it all! I'm not even that important!_

Phineas shook his head. "It's either I drink with him or no deal."

Percy gave me a look filled with pity and horror as I slowly made my way to the table. As I sat down, I asked, "Why me?"

"Well, it is your father's fault I got into this whole mess. He Gave me the gift of prophecy."

"But it's your fault for not using the gift wisely. And if it's anyone's fault, it Jupiter's." The sky rumbled.

"Oh well. I'm petty. Let's begin, shall we?" He lined the vials up and did something. I wasn't really paying attention as I was prayinhg to all the gods that I wouldn't choose wrong. Then I turned my mind to Gaea. _I'm one of the Nine. And that makes me pretty important. Also, I'm better than Phineas. He can only see the big things. I can see the details. Even he knows that. I'm more valuable than him. I think._ That was a _great_ argument, Robbie.

Phineas smiled a triumphant grin. "I choose this one, son of Apollo. Now, let's drink."

My hands were shaking as I took the vial. _I'm going to die._ Uncorking the vial, I drank. I only made it through a small swallow before my whole body felt like it was burning up. I keeled over.

Faintly, over the pounding of my ears, I could hear everyone calling my name and Phineas start to gloat. Then, the pain stopped. I cautiously sat up. Phineas suddenly screamed. "Gaea! I'm too valuable!" When it became clear that Gaea wasn't going to help him, he gasped, "You tricked me! Curse you! Curse you all!" His body steamed and disintegrated.

Percy was the first one over. "Oh my gods. I really thought you were going to die." Hazel came over and hugged me. "You have no idea how scared we were."

"I really thought so too." A sleepy voice invaded my mind. _You are more important than the seer. Your gifts will be useful later. There is much left for you to do._

Frank patted me on the back. "But you're fine now, right? You feel okay, no burning sensations or anything? Do you need nectar?"

"I'm fine. My headache's gone actually. That's good. " Taking the vial, I shook it. There was still some blood left inside. "So this is the one that heals."

Frank shrugged. "I suppose so."

I held it out to Percy. "Take it. You'll need it to get your memories back."

"Are you sure?"

"It's a foolproof way. And it's not like I need any more of it."

He took it and after looking at it reluctantly, he chugged the rest. After a few seconds, he stopped coughing and shook his head. "That is the worst medicine I have ever tasted."

I laughed, relieved to be alive. My laughter was cut short however, when Hazel came walking with a grim face. "We need to get to Hubbard Glacier," she said, showing us the napkin. "Good news? I know where it is."

"What's the bad news?"

Hazel looked at me. "It's really far away. We need to get moving. Let's get on the boat. Then you can tell us everything."

 _Great._


End file.
